Dead Sea, Israel - Jordan L

When I was 12, in the summer I went to Israel. On my second to last day, I went to the Dead Sea. It was at least a 5-hour drive from Tel Aviv, so I was getting a bit angsty in that cramped car with both my parents and my sister. After 6 hours we arrived because we stopped for lunch. I was so excited to swim! I got out of the car, and it was boiling outside. We were in the middle of the desert! The sea was right in front of us. There was a sign showing the temperature of the sea, it was 49°C! I couldn't believe my eyes until I got into the water. My parents told me not to get my face in the water, so I was trying to be careful not to. When I got into the water to about my stomach, I toppled over onto my side and started floating! The sea had so much salt in it that I was floating on top of it. There was a little gazebo in the water to give people shade from the scorching sun. At the bottom of the gazebo, there was salt that was gathering on the stands that kept it up! We decided that we had been in there long enough, so we got out and took a shower to get the salt off us. It was such an incredible experience for me, that's why the Dead Sea is my watermark.